Hill: Patience is a virtue for restorers of Engel Stadium

From SABR member Benjamin Hill at MiLB.com on June 6, 2014:

The Engel Foundation was founded in 2009 with an admirable and ambitious goal: to restore Chattanooga's Engel Stadium to its former glory.

Engel Stadium was built in 1930 and served as the home of the Chattanooga Lookouts until they moved to their current abode of AT&T Park in 1999. In the ensuing decade, the facility fell into a state of disrepair -- at one point condemned by the city -- and it seemed to be on the fast track to annihilation. The ballpark is now owned by Tennessee Temple University, whose baseball team played there from 2000-10.

The Engel Foundation, led by Chattanooga municipal employee Janna Jahn, refused to accept such a fate. The ballpark, named after flamboyant Lookouts owner Joe Engel, is a living, breathing piece of baseball history. Scores of baseball immortals -- Willie Mays, Satchel Paige and Harmon Killebrew among them -- played at the stadium, and in 1931 a 17-year-old local girl by the name of Jackie Mitchell struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in an exhibition game. The Engel Foundation's challenging (some might say "quixotic") mission has seen many ups and downs over the past half-decade, but progress is being made and the dream lives on.